Toe Lue Vang on a deportation flight. (@DHSgov via X)

OAN Staff Sophia Flores 
4:14 PM – Friday, July 10, 2026

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the deportation an illegal alien child rapist from Laos whose imminent removal was initially halted when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the State Board of Pardons granted him a full pardon.

On Friday, Rubio revealed that he stepped in to revoke Walz’s (D-Minn.) clemency for 42-year-old Tou Lue Vang who raped a 10-year-old girl more than two decades ago. At the time of his conviction in 2006, where he was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, he told investigators after he was arrested that his acts of child abuse were a “minor thing” and claimed that it was “a cultural thing… to marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.”

Laotian national Tou Lue Vang was convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl in Minnesota. 

He was set to be deported until @GovTimWalz issued him a pardon.

Then, I revoked his legal status. @ICEgov has removed him from the U.S. and he will never endanger another… pic.twitter.com/WCJkeeheJO

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 10, 2026

“Just weeks ago, a foreign child rapist was freed to once again endanger America’s children after receiving a pardon from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz,” Rubio said. “Toe Lue Vang admitted to committing heinous crimes against a 10-year-old girl in Minnesota. He attempted to pay his victim for her silence and dismissed his acts of child abuse as a ‘minor thing.'”

 

“Just days before he was scheduled to be deported, the Minnesota Governor pardoned him, setting him free to endanger American families once again,” Rubio lamented.

Following the secretary of state’s video, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared a post on its official X account revealing that Vang has been deported back to Laos.

The controversial pardon was originally granted on June 10th by the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission —comprising of Governor Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson—following a recommendation from the state’s Clemency Review Commission.

Vang had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on December 10, 2025, but was then released under federal supervision on February 19th while his case was reviewed. Then on June 10th, the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission voted to pardon him.

When asked why the board voted to release Vang, a spokesperson pointed to the exhaustive review process, which included community support letters and a letter from the victim advocating for his forgiveness so he could remain with his family.

 

“The Minnesota Board of Pardons made a unanimous decision to grant Tou Vang this pardon after an exhaustive process which included a statement of support for the pardon from the victim, a recommendation to grant the pardon from the Clemency Review Commission, and a large number of community support letters,” the spokesperson said.

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